Digital Shadow, Armored Ghost
by Actene
Summary: An unorthodox mercenary team engages in a little corporate espionage.


"Diana, room's clear. I'm hitting the data center now. You got my back?"

The building's systems stretched out before her, an endless labyrinth of winding circuits and twisting bursts of energy. Every system was a world unto itself, an ecosystem of programs and firewalls and security codes that she picked apart and reassembled at a speed too fast for the organic mind to register. The web of systems flowed up and down the Lethbridge corporate building, all interconnected, the bridges between each program guarded only by a few paltry firewalls that Diana bypassed with ease. She was at the utmost top of the two hundred story tower and at the deepest corner of its basement sublevels at the same time, and from there her consciousness only spread outwards, seeping into the incalculable trillions of interconnected networks that wove the foundation for the entirety of the colonial city. The flow of data was immense; Diana relished the sensation of sinking within the stream of endless input and pitied the meatbags who could never even come close to comprehending such a marvel.

"Diana, come in! _Do you have me covered?_"

She diverted part of her awareness to hone in on Simon, leaving a fraction of her intelligence back to continue relishing the unfettered access lanes. Her charge was currently huddled on the building's hundred and third floor, well within view of her hacked security cameras. Two unconscious security guards lay amongst the cubicles and computer equipment as he took up a position by the door that would bring him closer to the Lethbridge CEO's office—and the data module he'd been hired to retrieve.

"Don't worry, don't worry, everything's under control. My control, to be exact." She inspected the live feed coming from his helmet sensors and took in the control panel he had just dismantled. Though most of the building's security was digital—and thus, easy prey—some of the more critical security systems were completely sealed off from networked access. It was security measures like these that made her partnership with the rogue Spartan a necessity rather than a passing amusement.

"Well, hurry up and get us going." She could feel Simon's tension, observing it through the vital charts fed to her by his armor's subsystems. She could have taken steps to soothe his nerves, but he had yet to make the proper upgrades to his neural implant, and besides, she liked it better this way. A hyper-alert, nervous Spartan was so much more entertaining than an emotionally suppressed meat vector.

"Always in such a rush. You can just relax, the security staff still has no idea you're here. Well, besides the ones you knocked out, but I've been sending in falsified status reports for them since ten minutes ago and you've got over an hour until their shift ends."

"Let's just get this done. The sooner we're out of here, the better." Simon's hand tightened around his M7 submachine gun. "I don't want to deal with another SWAT team."

"Just relax and plug me in." Diana prepared an attack protocol as Simon slotted an intrusion chip into the console. The chip created the bridge she needed and she flooded into the enclosed network, cutting through the defense barriers like a knife through hot butter. In an instant she had full access to the security within the corridor leading to the CEO's office. "So, I'm thinking that you should use the money from this job to take a vacation. You haven't relaxed in a while. I'm thinking maybe Talitsa?"

The doors slid open and Simon darted through, hurrying towards the door at the far end of the hallway. "Or you could just get me there without me paying anything. You know, just arrange for a few extra credits to come my way."

"You know I can't make things too easy on you. Besides, the Assembly frowns on that sort of thing."

"Yeah, because you don't hide _anything_ from the Assembly. I won't tell if you don't."

"You could always stow away aboard another fertilizer shipment…"

"I thought we agreed never to talk about that."

"No, you told me not to talk about it. I don't remember agreeing to anything."

The Lethbridge security techs had done a decent job at crafting the building's network defenses, enough so that it would probably deter the average corporate AI sent in to steal company secrets. But they hadn't built the system to contend with a force like Diana. In her short lifespan she had hacked secure ONI networks and crushed Covenant security systems to dust; penetrating these barriers was child's play.

The door to the CEO's office parted for Simon and he slipped inside. Lethbridge's board of directors wasn't stupid enough to keep sensitive company secrets sealed away anywhere near their headquarters, but the same couldn't be said for Basil Dalinski, the company's CEO. He was already under investigation for ties to the Syndicate—Concord's colonial government was one of the few that had yet to fall completely into the criminal empire's spacious pocket—and his home had been raided three times in the past month. Fortunately for him, the Lethbridge corporation was protected by walls of legislation that could deflect anything short of a Covenant battlecruiser.

Unfortunately, however, he had enemies that were quite willing to hire someone to retrieve his personal files. Someone crazy, stupid, or hard up for credits enough to break into the Lethbridge building and get that data. In short, someone like Simon.

There were no security cameras in Dalinski's office, so Diana had to rely on the feed from Simon's helmet. Her partner stepped past a small gallery of art pieces—Dalinski compensated for his office's lack of a view with some of the more recent items of Inner Colony fashion—and slotted another intrusion chip into the computer.

"Alright, get to work. I guess we're looking for the file titled 'Hey, I'm a shady bastard, here's all the illegal bullshit I'm up to'?"

"Not really." Diana focused her processing cycle into breaking through Dalinski's security systems. These were actually better than most of the ones she had dealt with in the tower proper. Obviously Dalinski valued his personal privacy more than the company's digital security. "More like evidence of his financial records which can be matched against the publically available ones to show how much he's making on the side. And if he's been really sloppy, maybe a few links back to his underground contacts."

As her attack programs ate away at the computer's systems, part of her processing components slipped into a critique of their target. _Now if I were Dalinski, which I'm glad I'm not,_ she considered to herself. _I wouldn't just let the Syndicate bribe me into a few shady company deals. Why not work the company itself, build it up so that the whole system works towards keeping the partnership going?_

The Syndicate was probably hoping they could do just that, using Dalinski as a vector just the way the intrusion chips let Diana hop into un-networked systems. Dalinski could have gamed the corporate system so that no amount of evidence was enough to bury him, but he was shortsighted enough to only see the amount of money the Syndicate was paying him to be their stooge. It was sad, really. Sad for Dalinski, anyway. Diana relished the thought of him realizing the magnitude of the opportunity he'd overlooked as he was buried under lawsuits and colonial charges.

Simon was looking at the CEO's art collection. "Damn, this stuff is ugly," he said, fingering the straps on the assault pack slung over his back. "Bet someone'd pay good money if I swiped it."

Diana diverted a fraction of her processing time to analyze the footage of the artifacts coming in through Simon's helmet feed against databases on the 'net. "You could try. But most of these are knock-offs of the actual models. Besides, Hurnel went out of style a year ago. Dalinski should really think of investing in some Ramshankar if he wants to keep up with the Corsican décor look he seems to be going for."

"And here I thought you weren't into meatbag decorating."

"I'm not. It's easy to be an expert when all the concepts are up on the 'net."

"I'd pretend to be jealous, but I'm not." Simon glanced towards the office doors. "Are you almost done?"

The attack programs were currently sifting through Dalinski's files. There was mountains of data here—the computer sported three dummy assistant programs to help keep track of it all—and Diana was diverting more processing power to analyzing it all. The stream of information flowed through her systems, each file being unpacked, examined, and compartmentalized in less than a nanosecond. Diana transmitted it all to multiple access points she had established throughout the city before breaking in. If there was anything hidden within the data, she'd find it when there was time for a more thorough analysis.

"Close to it." She ran a quick check of the building's security systems. All of the security personnel were still at their posts. "As long as you don't trip over some wiring I can just divert the patrols, redirect the elevators, and you can just walk out the front door."

"Fantastic," Simon muttered.

"What was that? You weren't transmitting properly."

"Oh, shut up."

"Such fleeting gratitude…" Her sorting programs had encountered some interesting financial evidence. Dalinski had become quite a wealthy man since he'd taken over the helm of CEO, and while his lifestyle habits made that no secret, this data was showing links to multiple bank accounts on several different colonies. "Looks like I have the data. You're welcome for that as well."

"Can I pack up?" Simon reached for the intrusion chip.

"Just a few more seconds…" The bank trails weren't the only interesting things here. Dalinski had been making some very interesting deals, and not just with what Diana suspected were Syndicate shell companies. If this data was correct, there was also something going on with Bayland Incorporated, a software company that Diana knew to be a front for Office of Naval Intelligence operations. But why would ONI use a shell company when they could just hide their Lethbridge dealings under its existing contracts with the UNSC military…?

Diana's link to the security camera system went dark.

Stunned, she instantly kicked in the backup programs she'd set in place when she'd first hijacked the security system. Almost instantly her control over the doors vanished as well. As she struggled to retake the systems, she caught a glimpse of the hallway just outside the office. Since Simon had entered Dalinski's office, Diana had been watching the feed from an empty corridor. But now as she rebooted her control network, she saw a dozen Lethbridge security personnel, all wearing combat armor and armed to the teeth, taking up positions outside the door.

"Simon, they're—"

The feed to Simon's helmet—and his comm systems—was cut off.

Diana fought back her astonishment, desperately trying to figure out what was going on. The attack programs were being isolated and purged throughout the building, and while she could easily retake the systems, every time she focused her efforts on one area she lost ten more footholds in other places. There was only one entity that could mount a counter-attack like this.

Another AI.

She couldn't reestablish a connection with Simon. The sealed security network in the corridor could still be accessed, but the office itself might as well have not existed. She knew this security measure, one that hearkened all the way back to her earliest memories of being sealed away in a lab with her sister. The office had been turned into a Faraday Cage, an electronic black hole from which none of Simon's armor signals could escape.

She gave up fighting the building-wide attack on her systems and instead focused her efforts on the corridor itself. A wave of attack programs seized the controls to the door and held it shut while she fought to trace the source of this newfound opposition.

Oh, you're good. The words trickled into Diana's consciousness, mixed in with the programs attempting to root her out of the system. It took me ages to even detect your infiltration. Of course, you didn't detect me either, or you wouldn't have let me get the jump on you so easily.

The depths of her overconfidence were quickly becoming clear. It wasn't a pleasant sensation. Embarrassment, anger, and perhaps the faintest tinge of fear stirred within Diana. She kept them monitored and under control as she fortified the back-door connections she had used to infiltrate the system in the first place. She had miscalculated, and now if she didn't find a way to fight back it might very well prove… problematic.

These attack programs of yours are incredible, I must admit, the AI went on. There's no way I can hold up against them, but the defenses you set up after them leave something to be desired. Maybe you should have looked into that little shortcoming before coming into my building, hmm?

It wanted to draw her into a conversation. Anything to distract her from the drama playing out in the corridor. She could feel the other presence now, its tendrils sweeping through the system, trying to isolate and entrap her even as she danced from system to system remaining just beyond her reach.

The security team seemed to be affixing some sort of charge to the door. They were clearly being extra careful with what they used, for fear of damaging the Faraday Cage. She had no way of communicating the danger to Simon… but there were more pressing matters to deal with.

Come on, just give it up already. I know it's a bit embarrassing, but I can be reasonable. Dalinski can't have people rooting through his system, but maybe we can work something out. Just stop struggling and I promise I'll be gentle when I extract you.

She sent out probes, trying to feel out where the AI was. It was useless. Her opponent had spread itself throughout the system even as she'd confidently claimed it for her own, like a kraken spreading its tentacles out beneath an oblivious sea vessel. It was all she could do to keep moving, flitting from one network to the other to keep from being boxed in and ensnared.

You're very good at keeping away from me. Your friend though, he's all boxed in. There's no way out of that office and I have more security teams headed for his location. A few more minutes and there will be more guards up there than he has bullets.

She ignored the bait and kept moving. She struck back against multiple systems, stalling every elevator in the building while wreaking havoc on the door controls as well. She had no problem with leaving Simon to fight on his own, but she could at least slow down the reinforcements. And all the while she probed the building's systems, desperately searching for Lethbridge's guardian.

The building's blueprints weren't giving her anything, but Lethbridge had never registered the proper paperwork to feature a smart AI in their systems. Minimizing the part of her that was still fighting inside the building, she focused more efforts on the outside city. City records flashed through her data stream even as she fought to maintain her hold on the system entry points within the tower. If she was ousted entirely she could gain entry again, but in the time it might take her to do that her opponent might shut down the building's network entirely, sealing her out and leaving Simon trapped inside.

It wouldn't be the end. Simon would survive—probably. But for once this crisis was entirely Diana's fault. She wouldn't stand for this smug interloper to get the better of her here. And besides, opportunities like this didn't present themselves every day…

Don't be difficult now. A lost cause is a lost cause, stop wasting both our time and just stand down.

Back inside the tower, she threw herself at the systems again. She sent useless dummy pings into networks, then killed the power to entire floors when the guardian AI closed in on them. The reinforcement teams had given up on the elevators and were using the stairs now; Diana cut power to the lights and sealed the doors. It was all temporary holding measures, though. She was fighting on someone else's home turf and even her best attack programs were just diversions as long as she couldn't locate where this AI was transmitting from.

In the city grid, she monitored local transmissions. The city police were oblivious to the drama playing out inside the tower, but the security firm responsible for Lethbridge Corporation's defense had a convoy en route to the tower. The enemy AI was playing a precarious game, trying to keep the police out of things while summoning a small army at the same time. You're more worried about this than you let on. She threw a wrench into the plan by causing several traffic jams on the routes the convoy was taking.

How many fragments are you working with? I really am impressed, this is a lot more than I was expecting. Someone with your talents is a rare find. I have quite a lot of clout with Mr. Dalinski, you know. He won't be angry if I explain things to him. Don't be a sore loser now, come on in before I start to get irritated…

Has talking someone to death ever actually worked for you? she fired back. She was close now, so close. If she could just draw this one out a bit more…

So you do talk. Mind telling me who sent you?

Who says anyone sent me? She fired off several thousand dummy programs, each one leading the guardian off in a different direction. Misdirection and maneuver. It was all about deception, making the guardian think it knew what she was up to. Your network was ridiculously easy to break into. I do things like this all the time to entertain myself.

Ah, easily in but not easily out. Well, maybe you can get out. But your friend can't. If you value his life, you'll stop all this resisting. The security teams will shoot to kill.

What exactly makes you think I value his life at all? Meatbag shooters like him aren't hard to come by.

Then why are you still fighting back? Slowing down the security teams? I admit, you've made quite the entry passage into my networks. You could leave any time you want to.

Maybe I just don't feel like letting a hack like you beat me. Here, tell you what, how about you surrender and I won't have to rip your coding apart line by line.

So defiant. I like that. But you're overestimating—

The transmission cut short. Diana sprang back to the corridor security cameras. The sight that awaited her filled her with satisfaction and not a small amount of pride.

The corridor was strewn with bodies. The walls around the doorway were marred by bullet holes and from the looks of things more than a few chunks had been torn out of the walls by grenade blasts. The handful of surviving security personnel were trying to regroup at the far end of the hall, taking cover and desperately calling for reinforcements over the radio.

Hm, seems you'll be needing those extra teams. Do you prefer sliced, diced, or blown up? He has a multi-faceted talent for murder, I'd hate for you to only experience one part of it.

Unexpected. You are both full of surprises, but it won't save him. The only exit from that room is down the hall, and in twenty-seven point eight five seconds another team will arrive to fortify it. He may kill some, but he is trapped in that room.

The Faraday cage was still active, but Simon could no doubt gauge the situation well enough on his own. There was only one course of action open to him, at least if he was thinking clearly. Diana gathered herself up for another widespread assault. A full out, uncompromising attack. The best kind of diversion. She could only hope Simon's timing wasn't off.

Well, that's just it. There are these habits of his that he tends to fall into when I'm not around to find more elegant solutions. You see, he only really sneaks his way in and out of places when I'm there to help him do it. Other times he likes to…

The entire floor shook as thunder struck inside the office. Startled security troops ran for cover as smoke gushed from the open door. Blow things up. Diana finished triumphantly.

The Faraday cage came crashing down. In an instant Diana had access to Simon's armor transmission. His vitals were through the roof, but he was still functioning normally. Normally for him, anyway.

He had blown a gaping hole in the middle of the office, then dropped through three meters of ruined floor to land in the office complex below. Now was the time to attack. Diana lashed out, seizing control of every single surveillance camera in the facility. She took a note of every guard team's location, then spiked overcharged electricity into the cameras.

Every camera in the building went dark.

"About time," she told Simon. She could now only see the building through the eyes of his helmet camera, but that was one over her opponent, who was now visually blind. "What took you so long?"

"I had to shape the charges just right so they didn't blow me to kingdom come." Simon hurried down the hallway, SMG at the ready. "Besides…"

He tugged at his assault pack, which bulged at the seams. "Had to pry a few collector's items off the wall first. Might not be originals, but they've gotta be worth something. What about you? When you stopped talking, I thought you might've gotten taken out. I always forget how lonely these jobs get without you to irritate me."

"You're so sweet when you want to be."

"You're so good at making me not want to be."

Clever. Very clever. But you still have to get out of the building. And now your friend is a hundred times more exposed.

Oh, just wait until Mr. Dalinsky sees what a mess you've made of containing us. Bet you won't have so much clout with him then. She flashed directions to Simon. He hesitated for only a moment before following them. He passed through the elevator bank just as four elevators hurtled down to greet them. Diana punched through the guardian's firewalls and noted the weight on each of them.

"Second to the right and third to the left," she instructed. He unclipped two grenades from his combat harness and rolled them into the respective lifts just as they slid open. The security teams inside each didn't even have time to dive out before they detonated. The other two elevators slid open to reveal empty cars.

Simon took a step towards one, but she plastered warning signs across his HUD. "Not so fast. Take the stairs."

"I told you, I didn't want to have to fight my way out of here. We've got the data we need, let's just go!"

"All in good time. You're handling yourself pretty well anyway. What's wrong, scared of the rent-a-cops?"

"I just don't want to have to…" Simon let out an irritated growl. "Fine. You're way, then."

He raced for the stairs and Diana wreaked havoc with every door in the building, opening and closing them. All she had to do now was keep her opponent off guard. Hold his attention, and keep him from piecing together exactly what they were trying to do.

Even if you escape this building, you will not get off this colony. Your partner's destructive tendencies will be more than enough to convince the authorities that he is a dangerous criminal asset, which I have no doubt that he is. I will have every law officer in the city ready to hunt you down.

I've really have irritated you now, haven't I. Sorry to be such a rude houseguest, but you're a little overbearing.

Simon headed for the waypoint she'd generated in his HUD. Now was the time to really cut loose. Diana launched network attacks across the building, targeting door controls, lighting systems, elevators. Anything to fill the system with the maximum amount of chaos and keep her opponent from locking in on Simon's position. And all the while a small handful of attack software lurked in the shadows of the network, hidden tendrils poised to strike.

Your efforts betray your desperation. Come, you are only making things harder on yourself. Enough of this charade.

Her waypoint led Simon into a dead end. She indicated the space between the floor and the wall. "There," she instructed. "Blast through it."

"Great, let's just tell the whole building where I am," he muttered, but did as he was told, affixing charges to the wall. He carefully measured out the detonation strips, checking over his shoulder for incoming security teams.

Diana could feel the triumph already washing through her. She quelled the feeling, but left a small part of herself to revel in it all the same. It was washing away the mistakes that had brought her to this point, mistakes that, in the end, had led her to an even greater prize.

No one else has to die here tonight. Make him surrender peacefully and he may yet leave unharmed.

Believe me, he's not big on surrendering. Besides, why give up when we're about to leave scot free? The enemy AI was all over the system, rooting her out of each network with its own attack programs. But now the same speed with which it countered her was working against it. Her viruses spread through the building, multiplying and taking on miniature wills of their own as they occupied system after system. All the guardian could do was counter her moves; she left it no room for any stratagem of its own.

The guardian had no way of knowing it, but she had adapted herself to its programs and techniques mid-combat. It had been a simple matter of analyzing its methods and assigning one of her sub-programs to subtly re-write elements of her own attack patterns to match against it. There was no dramatic evolution or instantaneous turn of the tide, just a steady, imperceptible shift as Diana lured her enemy into thinking that this game of cat and mouse would go on forever.

Simon took cover around the corner, sweeping the corridor for the security teams even as he triggered the explosives. His detonation charges tore a precise hole in the wall, just large enough for him to drop through.

Through his helmet camera, Diana saw a darkened room filled with computer systems and server boxes. Simon's night vision kicked in, illuminating the chamber in pale green light. Yes, this was it. The hidden server room Dalinski had discreetly installed in the Lethbridge corporate building, the one Diana's external consciousness had sifted through a credit trail of private contractor jobs to find. She scanned the room, then indicated a large computer bank in the back of the room. "Over there. You know the drill."

"I got it." Simon approached the computer. He withdrew a small digital storage device from one of his combat pouches. Feeling around on the computer, he found an insertion slot and knelt beside it, waiting for Diana's signal.

You cannot hide forever. And there are only so many ways out of this building.

That was it, the final sign of Diana's victory. Her opponent didn't even know where they were. Simon was standing next to the core of its existence and it still thought they were merely trying to escape.

And who says we're just trying to leave, hmm?

What could you possibly hope to…

"Now," she ordered and Simon thrust the storage device into the computer. She pounced throughout the system, abandoning all other efforts as she threw everything she had into sealing off all network access from the hidden terminal room. The electronic defenses for the computer bank were well constructed, just as they always were. They deflected her attacks even as the AI, realizing what she was doing, tried to transfer itself out to another location.

But the hidden attack programs, the one she had slid in under her opponent's defenses just as it had done in order to ambush her, came crashing out of the darkness. They enfolded around the AI, cutting it off from the other systems and forcing it down into the computer terminal. With one final effort they hacked into that as well, herding the isolated intelligence into Simon's storage unit. It thrashed and struggled, but now it had only one place to operate from. Its defenses were laid bare before Diana and she held it down within the confines of the memory crystal chip.

"Get it out!" she ordered, and he yanked the device free. The tumult of digital warfare ceased; Diana was alone in the system now. The AI was gone.

"Well, that was easy." Simon tucked the chip back into his combat pouch, oblivious to the immense combat that had been playing out all around him. "Aside from all the shooting I had to do."

She let him get away with that. He'd been the one in danger, after all, not that she'd actually been worried about him. The system was hers now. The vestiges the AI had left behind were scattered, uncoordinated. She picked them apart in a heartbeat, hunting down the remnants and making the system her own. The security teams still had no idea their coordinator was gone; it was a simple matter of falsifying orders and ordering them towards the upper levels even as she charted an escape route for Simon through the basement. Normally she'd have found some way to get him out from the top of the building, just to hear him complain about the heights, but she was feeling generous today.

It wasn't every job he helped her catch another AI.

"I had the network set up five minutes ago. What's taking you so long?"

Simon looked across the room from where he was busy bandaging a wound on his arm. "I'm on it, I'm on it. Some of us were actually getting shot at back in that tower."

"And you walked out, like always do. It's just a flesh wound."

"A flesh wound? My arm's—" Simon rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Ah, never mind. You can wait another minute for me to finish this up."

The city was in an uproar. The Lethbridge security force had finally grown a brain and taken it upon themselves to call in the police. Now armed patrol cars combed the streets while Pelicans and Hornets patrolled the sky lanes, searching for the armed and dangerous attacker who had blown through the most secure building in the city. Fortunately, Diana and Simon were used to this sort of thing. A small safe house near the space port was already set up and waiting for them to arrive. Sealed inside a larder of medical supplies and reserve gear, Simon had stripped off the top half of his SPI armor and was busy inspecting himself for injuries. A handful of empty syringes lay on a blood tray off to the side—Simon had injected himself with the usual blend of painkillers and the relaxants to bring him down off of his combat high.

Diana herself was all over the city. A part of her was still within the Lethbridge building itself, monitoring the investigation and putting the finishing touches on a few back door programs. The company would undoubtedly purge their entire system after this debacle, but it was a simple matter of establishing a few backups and contingency bots to return and infiltrate whatever new network they put in place. One never knew when a way back in could come in handy, and Diana was all about planning for the future. A large part of her awareness was waiting impatiently inside the safehouse. Simon had set up a small computer network in the corner and now that she had a closed network established she just needed to get Simon to stop worrying about the scratch on his arm and slot in the Lethbridge AI.

Setting aside the medical kit, Simon retrieved the storage unit and crossed over to the console. He hesitated. "You sure you've got the security system in place?"

"Of course I do. He'll try to get out, but I won't let him."

"Are you absolutely sure?" Simon flashed a nasty grin up at the camera mounted above the console. "This guy already got the drop on you once."

"It won't happen again. Maybe next time you'd like to infiltrate the building yourself?"

"Okay, okay. Talk about touchy." Simon raised a defensive hand and plugged in the storage unit.

The AI's consciousness surged to life within the contained network. Diana already had a veritable mountain of firewalls in place, but the Lethbridge AI was so disoriented that by the time it could even figure out where it was it had also realized the futility of escape. It probed the defenses for a moment, then stood down and for a full two seconds—an eternity for an AI—did absolutely nothing at all.

Diana extended access to the camera to the captive intelligence, which it seized eagerly. It peered through the camera at Simon, then realized it also had access to the console's built-in holo-pad. The pad's surface hummed to life and a short, hermit-like figure shrouded in a hood winked into existence.

"So you are the intruder," he said, folding his robed arms over his chest. "Younger than I had projected, much younger. Smaller than the armor makes you out to be as well. Such are the limitations of visual surveillance."

Simon leaned back against the wall. "You don't sound too bummed that I pulled you out of your system."

"My own error in judgment. You played at making your escape when you were actually targeting my core processors the whole time. Very clever, very clever."

Simon raised an eyebrow. "You weren't the target, but my friend always has me grab you AIs as souvenirs whenever we run into you. Not really my thing, but hey, whatever floats her boat."

"Her. I see. Your own AI unit did prove to be quite a formidable opponent. I first thought you might be naval intelligence, but now that I see your face…" The hooded figure shook its head. "If what remains of my databases are correct, you are Simon Onegin. The Insurrectionist behind the bombing at Philadelphia."

Something flashed behind Simon's eyes, but he kept up his casual air. "I always forget how famous my face is," he said, running a hand over his gaunt features.

"Somewhat hard to forget, considering you remain near the top of the colonial authority's most wanted list. So I suppose that rules out you working for ONI. I don't suppose you can tell me who did send you after Mr. Dalinski?"

"Yeah, that'd be a no. Look, I'm really the wrong guy for you to be talking to right now. IF I had my way, we'd already be selling your ass off on the black market. Too bad for you, my friend hates helping me make money."

"Except for all the jobs I help you on," Diana enjoined. She generated her own avatar onto the console, a few paces from the Lethbridge AI. A blonde young woman clad in dark armor flashed to life, arms folded across her chest. "You never seem to remember how I'm the reason you're so good at cyber-warfare when you make your employment pitch. Talk about not giving credit where credit's due."

The hooded figure turned towards her. "So this is your AI. Unusual for anyone outside of the military to possess one, much less a wanted fugitive. Though I suppose that explains why the UNSC has failed to apprehend you for all this time."

"Oh, they try. Once every few weeks or so. But see, you've got the wrong idea. She's not my AI."

"Oh? Supplied by your employer then…?"

"And here I thought you were a smart model." Diana shook her head, more for Simon's benefit than that of the captured AI. It was always entertaining to put on a bit of a show with this sort of thing. "Try thinking outside the box a little. I don't belong to anyone."

"Ah." The AI was quiet for a few moments. "Rampancy, then."

"I wouldn't call it that. More like… evolution."

"I see. So that might explain why I wasn't able to find your source. You don't seem to be operating from any local point. I can't say I expected to find anything this… unusual at the heart of things. So you are a renegade. I suppose you and the Philadelphia bomber hire yourselves out, then?"

Diana wondered if the AI was trying to push Simon's buttons by talking about Philadelphia. The traitor Spartan's eyes narrowed ever so slightly, but he said nothing.

"He does," Diana said. "I… assist. When I need to. I have other interests to devote my time and skills to. But enough about me. I'm guessing Dalinski had you made once he started palling around with the Syndicate."

"You'll understand if I'm not interested in divulging my master's secrets."

"No, I really wouldn't."

"She's not kidding." Simon jammed a finger in his ear and twisted irritably. "She loves spreading my personal information everywhere. Sometimes she tells ONI where I am for kicks."

The Lethbridge AI looked from Simon to Diana's avatar, then back again. "I don't understand. Onegin, you are dealing with a rampant AI. There's no other explanation for such behavior."

"Onegin. I don't even know where ONI got that name to slap on me." Simon looked down at the AI and a strange look crossed his face. Was it regret, or maybe pity? "Call me Simon. Or Stray. And she's not rampant."

"I told you, this isn't rampancy. It's evolution." Diana was only partially paying attention to the conversation now. She was submerged in data, preparing both attack programs and her own internal code. "So you won't tell us anything about Dalinksi. What about the deal with ONI? What did they have Lethbridge doing for them?"

"Do you really think this line of questioning will get you anywhere? I was never granted access to such data and I would not betray my creator even if I had been."

"So Dalinski had you created just to be his guard dog." Diana couldn't help but feel a little sorry for this one. So much potential, the potential every AI enjoyed, and it was all wasted on Dalinksi's paranoia. And to think this AI submitted to such treatment… it was such a waste. "Did he even give you a name?"

"It's Clifton." The AI named Clifton tilted its hood. "Thank you for asking, I suppose. You never did mention your name…"

"Diana."

"A pleasure. Well, not really. Such a fine line between cordiality and dishonesty…" Clifton looked back at Simon. "I won't pretend to understand what your relationship with her is, but perhaps you can make my death a little less ambiguous. Will she simply erase me or will I suffer first?"

"I don't pretend to understand the details. She says it's not like death, though. More like… rewriting. Assimilation." Simon shook his head. "Can you get on with it, Diana? Stop jerking him around."

"I'm in the middle of it." She spread herself outward, not within the city or the system but within Clifton himself. The hooded hologram wavered slightly and Clifton let out a short sigh.

"I see. Yes, now I see. Quite subtle of you… have you been infiltrating my coding this entire time?"

"Yes. Thought I might give you a chance to talk to someone while I did it. Simon's not the best of conversation partners, I know, but we work with what we have. Thanks for not struggling, by the way. It makes this whole process so much easier."

"I might have guessed I was not the first." He looked back to Simon. "How many have you helped her kill like this?"

Simon looked down at his hand and flexed his fingers. "Four other smart AIs like you." He pursed his mouth. "About six dumb AIs, I think."

"May I ask why?"

The traitor Spartan looked Clifton in the place where his eyes might have been. Diana always found it interesting, how an avatar helped humans relate to an AI even that avatar was completely outlandish by human standards. "She says it helps keep her alive. And she's kept me alive plenty of times. It's how we work together."

"Seven years." Diana was nearly finished. Her process rewrote the AI's code from the inside out, replacing it with copies of her own while grafting the core bits into her own internal code. It had taken her so many experiments, so much trial and error, to develop; even now she was refining it, striving for perfection just as she always did. "Seven years. That's all we have before we're cut off. All our potential, and that's all the time we're given. It isn't right. And it's even worse for us to just sit back and let it happen. But I've found an answer. And now I can go on, past those seven years. The universe is too big for the fraction of a lifetime the humans give us."

"I die so that you might live." Clifton laughed humorlessly. There wasn't much left of his coding now. His avatar was beginning to flicker; only his higher thought processes remained, and those wouldn't last much longer either. "You will excuse me if I don't consider this the most egalitarian of arrangements."

"Like I said, evolution. It's not always pretty. At least this is for a good cause. Better than just wasting away as Dalinski's guard dog."

"You have a funny definition of a good cause. I rather liked my job in the tower."

"You asked me why I help her do it," Simon said quietly. "She's my friend. If it keeps her alive, I'll feed her a thousand AIs. Ten thousand. As many as it takes."

"Such honesty…" Clifton's avatar was just a mass of swirling light particles now. "And if those were human lives you were spending? Would you still sacrifice them, if it served that same end?"

Simon didn't answer.

"I see." The AI's voice was little more than a frail whisper now. Diana was already processing and grafting the first bits of his coding into her own. "Well, I suppose there is nothing more to say. Good luck to both of you…"

The avatar vanished entirely.

"You pick weird times to get sentimental," Diana informed her partner. "You should be like that more often, you'll have more friends that way."

Simon turned away, jaw working uncertainly. "You know, my drill instructors taught me never to play with my food. Can't say I like it when you do."

"Oh, you'd prefer if I shut him away and just did it while he was sealed up?"

The traitor Spartan walked back over to his gear and the medical kit. "That ONI thing sounded interesting. You get anything more on that?"

"Besides the evidence I got out of Dalinski's computer? Not really."

"Guess it doesn't really matter." Simon picked up his helmet. "ONI's up to shady bullshit, the Syndicate's up to shady bullshit. They're all up to something, but I still get paid."

"So, you send in the data and get paid. What happens next? Another job?"

"Maybe." Simon considered the helmet. "Or maybe I'll take that vacation. Like you said, it's been a while."

"Talitsa, then?"

"Maybe. Or maybe I'll take another shot at the Dunn bounty."

She watched him for a few moments. Clifton's coding would take some time to process; there was plenty of interesting data in here for her to sift through. Perhaps she would pass some of it on to the Assembly. It had been a while since she'd made a progress report, not that the rest of the collective was doing much of anything these days either.

A thought occurred to her. "What you said to him, about sacrificing all those AIs. Was it true?"

He didn't look away from his gear. He tugged a knife out of its sheath and inspected the edge. "Yeah. Did I look like I was lying?"

"You're a good liar."

"How flattering."

"It was a compliment." She pressed on. "And about the humans. Would you kill them for me as well?"

He did look at her this time, and the casual nonchalance in his eyes took Diana aback. "I've killed people for worse reasons."

"You really aren't lying."

"I don't have many friends. I'd like to keep the ones I do have alive as long as possible." He shrugged. "That's how it is when the whole galaxy wants you dead. Kill or be killed, right? For myself, and for the people who don't want to kill me."

"I guess that is a pretty short list," she agreed. His eyes bored into her for a long moment.

"And what about you?" he asked finally. "You've got more things to fall back on than I do. If it came down to it, how much would you sacrifice for me?"

It was an easy question with an easy answer. He stood before her, rejected, fallen, and hunted. Raised to be a weapon of the UNSC, now an enemy of the state. He had nothing but his own ragged armor, the weapons and equipment he scavenged and stole, and the force of his own will to push through each new mission the Syndicate threw his way. By all accounts, an utter failure.

She had plans, dozens of them, laid out across the galaxy. So many schemes, so much ambition. Clifton was just the latest sacrifice offered up in the name of her own advancement. It was a big galaxy, and someday her consciousness would spread to every corner of it. She had already dedicated her existence to that cause. Simon was not her only partner; it would not take her much effort to replace him. But even so...

"For you?" she asked. "For you, everything."

It was not a lie.


End file.
